Great Video of Jay Leno Test driving the MINI E, never expected it could do a power slide like that.
I noticed he is driving number 138 where all the other Test Drives have been very low numbered vehicles, but this one still has the "MINI E" name on the side, I think that is ugly and detracts from the simple E plug logo, I hope it is just for the MINI's shown to the Press and wont be on the Field Trial MINIs.
Also he mentions the regenerative braking and it sounds like that only kicks in under 40 mph, so probably you can take your foot off the GAS and coast at higher speeds.
[Source: Jay Leno's Garage]
To Custom Plate or Not?
11 years ago
Posts
Robert,
ReplyDeleteThe regenerative braking is always active, and most useful at higher speed because the kinetic energy of the vehicle increases as the square of velocity.
You can coast at any time, but not by lifting your foot. You have to find the balance point between positive torque (acceleration) and negative torque (braking), which means depressing the pedal roughly 1/3 of the way. With a few minutes' practice, this becomes second nature and extremely addictive.
I hope you enjoy your Mini E. We enjoyed building its powerplant.
O. Emry,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, What I'd read about the Regenerative breaking on the MINI E made it sound like it was all or nothing, being able to gradually apply regen breaking makes much more sense. I assume the coast point (point between acceleration and braking) changes based on your speed, at lower speeds you'd be depressing the pedal less to reach that point?
I talked a bit about Regenerative breaking and my understanding of it back in February in the post http://mini-e.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-of-best-things-about-being-in-field.html probably made some other false assumptions there too.
Glade to know someone from AC Propulsion is reading this.
Robert